and who is having the last laugh? it's you chinese. so make sure you keep it that way.

as for them japns, japan is a non-issue now. in another decade or so, japan will end up at best (or worst) as the 51st or 52nd state of the usa, or at worst (or best) as another province (or dao) of korea (south or north).

The Economist main point is that huge numbers of people died during the Rape of Nanjing as did during the famines of the 1960's. So those who died in each of those incidents deserve an equal amount of morning and respect from their decendents today. I'm sure the Chinese People do that, however it doesn't appear that the Chinese Government will receognize those who died during the The Great Leap Forward, because it means they might have to admit error on their part.
Both are tragic incidents that deserve an equal amount of rememberence. As Qing Song says, a massacre is a massacre. No matter if it was purportrated by Japanese War Criminals or severly misguided government policy. I find both to be equally appauling. What's worse being raped then bayonetted or having the government confiscate what little food you have and watching your family die in slow agony from hunger?

I think what sets America appart in some respects is that the Subjegation of the Native Americans, the Revolutionary War, Slavery and World War II are all taught equally in our classrooms. Those are very telling extremes of our nation's history. Some shining moments others dark implacable scares that will forever be remembered. They contribute to our national identity, for our triumphs give us motivation and drive but regocnition of our failures serve us the true capacity to grow.

The Chinese are a standout people because of how much they honor their dead and worship their ancestors. I think they should honor their Grandparents who suffered the horrific atrocities of the Japanese, as well as their parents who starved to death during the 1960s.

Don't make me laugh. For one, the CCP is not a monolithic entity and the people responsible for the GLF are dead. They made up for their crimes by lowering Chinese death rates and increasing Chinese life expectancies, and were and still are held accountable for EVERY mistake they made (and continue to make) in China.

Second, what Mao did was allow the death rate in China to spike by around 7-8/1,000. The lie that Mao "murdered" 80 million, 200 million, 30 billion Chinese is a joke.

Third, the notion that the subjugation (note the spelling, as with "appalling") of the Native Americans is the last and worst atrocity Americans have committed is nonsensical. America continues to kill millions through financial terrorism, illegal wars, sanctions, bombings of medical facilities, Agent Orange, UXO in Cambodia, corporate malfeasance abroad, etc.

None of that is taught in even 1% of American schools. The Chinese should likewise honor the countless tens of millions (almost all non-whites) ruthlessly butchered by America and use their power and influence to spread the truth about your vile history. Humanity depends on it.

famines is not like preplanned murder/genocide, you can't blame GWB for katrina as if he intended for million to lose their house, all you can blame him for is bad management however that is not the same as entering a city and intentionally destroying everything. beside no one here is questioning if disaster should be remember, but why must we downplay historical fact? would any jews accept that the holocaust be downplay?

furthermore the killing didn't just take place in nanjing, or even just in china. even as far south as indonesia, we were being targeted by race loaded in truck, send to the beach and machinegun down. there are still many beaches in asia where if you dig deep enough, you will find human bones in mass grave. this was never a PRC-Japan issue, it a racial one.

i do think nanjing is overly focus, cause the killing didn't happened just in nanjing, however just like the many movie that use Auschwitz as a setting (less famous places are rarely feature), or that the israeli are killing(preplaned) people, doesn't change the reality of what Auschwitz is.

if someone wrote an article about Auschwitz being a bad movie setting because of what is happening in gaza, what kind of response do you think people will have? while i disagree with israel policy, i don't see how that suddenly mean Auschwitz is not legitimate issue.

the fact is chinese are being racial targeted today around the world is true. overseas chinese were nickname 'jews of the east', the indonesian massacre reminds us these things still happen. so it is very dangerous for someone to write an article like this. the problem isn't nationalism, it about justice. the island dispute is an extension of this feeling of a lack in justice after the war, japan still want to dispute territory in south china seas. an island that is closer to and of the taiwan administration prior to the war.

now i have champion the idea that japan should abandon that island to the taipei administration, and show it willingness to be a non-expansionist power. consider this, that south korean would name their largest warship after dispute with japan and not dprk or prc, what does that tell us about how asian feel about japan? it simply not a PRC-Japan problem. and people outside of asia have to start taking notice instead of assuming this is only something that happens because of PRC government.

many countries had in fact produced local tv drama about massacre committed by japanese in their country. PRC is not the exception.

The population of Tokyo was 7,000,000 before the war.
That shrank to 3,000,000 after the war.
Due to a hundred of bombing over a year, 100,000 people died in Tokyo.
The population of Okinawa was 500,000 before the war.
In a ground war over three months, 200,000 people died in Okinawa.
The population of Nanjing was 200,000 before the Nanjing Massacre.
Is it possible to kill 300,000 people for a week with poor Japanese artilleries?

I want to give you a nickname as ' SB' .
do you know the meaning ?
It means that someone is so stupid as no medicine could cure him.
If you really want to say something that sounds reasonable ,Please show where the number you got ?
【The author , now, you can see the real difference between Japanese with Germany.】

Japanese citizens were killed by the US bomb. China militarizes defended their homeland and killed invaders, this is justified.

The author hates China so much that lose his ability to distinguish good from bad. Maybe he will write another paper and tell us that
"Generally people accept a lot of Jews were killed by Nazi, however, this was not the fact, but merely an estimate. "

However, I agree with the author that China government and the communist party should face the history honestly. The communist party should admit their wrong doings, such as Great Leap, Culture revolution, 1989-64 and so many others.

Japan has never seriously reflected on its crimes during the World War II and has never publicly apologised to those countries concerned. Officials often pay tribute to Yasukuni Shrine, where WWII war criminals are enshrined.

Many people killed and women/young grils raped across not only in China but South East Asia like my country Malaysia during WWII. It is criminal for The Economist and whoever wrote this article to put their anti-china view in this way and ignoring this serious crime in probably the darkest period in the history of mankind.

I would suggest that you reflect on this before publish any article of this nature in the future.

So what is the purpose of this article? Whom are you trying to convince? It hurts again the sore point of the Chinese collective psyche while defaming the Chinese in the eyes of non-chinese. Harping on CCP as boogeyman ad nauseum only exposes your intellectual deficit. Typical westerners' idiosyncracy, I must say.

it really doesn't matter how CCP is handling Chinese history. I really don't get it. Japanese can celebrate their war criminals in a shrine while Chinese mourning of their dead will be accused of political purposes. What kind of logic is that? This article is really a new low in Economist history. Have some political correctness.

The population of Nanjing was 200,000 before the Nanjing Massacre .
That was 200,000 after the massacre.
The famine in 1942 was helped by Japanese soldiers.
Japanese soldiers gave their food to deserted Chinese.

Japanese invaded China during 1942, they threw bombs to the famine refugees 。 And do you know where the food from? Japanese soldiers ate the food from China ,killing Chinese people ,even using their Survival desire to let them help them .
Besides , there are you get the number? are you kidding me ?
I can identify that you must be a jAPANESE from your name .
I feel so sorry for your mother to have a kid like you .
do you have any humanity?

Japanese invaded China during 1942, they threw bombs to the famine refugees 。 And do you know where the food from? Japanese soldiers ate the food from China ,killing Chinese people ,even using their Survival desire to let them help them .
Besides , there are you get the number? are you kidding me ?
I can identify that you must be a jAPANESE from your name .
I feel so sorry for your mother to have a kid like you .
do you have any humanity?

Chiang Kai-shek broke the dikes of the Yellow river, and tried to stop invasion of Japanese army.
This attempt devastated the downstream sector, and caused the famine in 1942.
The people in Henan were deserted by Chiang Kai-shek, and 3,000,000 people died.
Japan didn't govern Henan, but Japanese soldiers gave their food.

It'd be great to know what chinese people think about its history and its government, even criticizing. But ther's something I can never forget: the comunist party has the right to say the very unique version of any history in China. The political use is evident. It's not accptable to compare China with US nor UK. China is more comparable to a tribe or a teocracy. It'll need years to say something like: "Malaysia did it too!"... China hasn't achieved this level of democractic maturity yet. The very only true I know is that: THE DICTATORSHIP MUST FALL. There isn't a flexible view of "asian democracy" there. It's pure DICTATORSHIP. No theorical flexibilization. No proud of it.

there's no need to get upset with them japns, no matter what they say here.

like americans say, 'a good jap is a dead jap'

today, japns are without their own independent country. the poor thing they exist only because the us wants them to, and only as the us vassal.

they may still flaunt their money (actually what's left of it) allowed by the us only because they have nothing else to brag about. the occuping mater the us changes japns prime ministers like changing diapers. how low can them japns get?

japns non-repentance actually nailed them for being pityful and insignificant that they are supposed to belong in the first place.

but you should not worry, japan is a non-issue now. let koreans (north and south both) take good care of japan and they seem to know how, under the watchful but approving eyes of the us.

What would be British, French, US and rest of the world's attitute if the German build a memorial for Adolf Hitler in Berlin and Angela Merkel and her government pray her holy leader there annually. That's exactly what Chinese feels now!

Yasukuni Shrine - is the HOLY place for Japanse politicans to honor and pray war crimes who raped hundreds of thousands Chinese Women from age of 10 to age of 70.

I think that's exactly the point BalanceView. Articles on this subject tend to accept history as truth but commentators seem to reply on a tangent of anti-japanese sentiment. Without taking sides, the point is not that Chinese should not remember and be angry, but rather that China uses history as a politcal tool when it is desireable for them to do so but do not do so when it is not in their interest. You're right, there are no memorials to hitler, but there are also no memorials to the American generals who slaughtered Native Americans - or at least not advertized as such. I think the point of the article is 'what's good for the goose is good for the gander' because in the eyes of outsiders, the slaughter of Tibetans, the slaughter of Jews, the slaughter of Chinese - the Irish famine, the Chinese famine, the Ukranian famine, etc, are all equally horrible.

Just because you do something horrible and don't apologize, does not make it OK that I do something horrible and don't apologize either.

"China is never shy about putting its history to political use when it seems expedient"

I sat here for 5 minutes trying to come up with a non-political statement that uses the word holocaust, and I finally succeeded by deploying a template used so many times in my language art homework: 'Holocaust is a word with nine letters'.

At first I was a bit ashamed of using a template instead of coming up with some original ideas, but much to my relief after reading the article and some of the comments, I discovered that they, too, shamelessly use a template, a template issued by NRA, which goes something like 'Yes gun kills people, but why don't you first admit that car kills many more!', and 'So what if Mao did something good for China, there must be thieves and rapists among the 300,000 slaughtered in Nanjing who deserve to die!'.

maybe you don't know the truth that ,there are many survivors have asked for the compensations ,but Japanese rarely denied them and did not pay any penny. Along with the time passing by ,they all died . Now ,the question is ,whether should us treat Japan as Germany ? Did japanese really introspect its ashamed history？ I don't think so . But Germany did .the author want to compare the Nanjing massacre with the MAO. I am outraged now. Before you start writing ,please distinguish the difference between them. Japan invaded China ,just like somebody broke into your house and killed your family me members , devastating the people . HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE PICTURES PHOTOED BY foreign priests? Have you ever studied or learn something about the international law? According to the Vienna peace treaty，armed soldiers should never kill the bare-handed innocents !!!! It's about the humanity！

Nanjing massacre along with the Holocaust is the darkest day in humanity in the 20th century.

People need to know that Japanese politican and even high level govt memember been denying war crimes such as Nanjing massacre, repeatly and war criminal is being worshipped at Yasukuni Shrine.

Just this year, Hiliary Clinton denouced Japan (US ally) for their denial in forcing woman as sex slave during WWII. She did it not because she want to score some policitical gains. She did it because of basic human decency.

But I guess that's too much to ask from the author, nothing too low for the author to scores some cheap punches towards China. You, the author totally disgust me.

No, it's not widely known as the "Nanjing Massacre". It's known around the world - except in Japan, of course - as the "Rape of Nanjing', for good reason. This set the article of to a poor start. When I got to the bit about China using the deaths of hundreds of thousands of women and children for political expediency I stopped reading, wrote this comment and buggered off to a more intelligent website.

During WW2 and inspired by its ambitious and wicked emperor, Japanese turned themselves into animals to conquer its neighbors.

The shame of the 'The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere' and 'Comfort Women'. Imagine captured young women are forced to be sex slaves for their army. What kind of monster did the Japanese military become? Is it worse than the German crimes of WW2? At least they did not rape openly.

There was a contest in which two Japanese generals competed over how many Chinese heads could be chopped off with their swords. After beheading over a hundred, one competitor said that it was not fair as his blade was dull. They continued the utter madness by restarting the competition all over again! Was there any conscience?

These soldiers are war criminals. They killed innocent people by tossing babies, looting and raping. They killed anyone taking pictures. Many of these criminals are being paid respect by high officials in the 'shrines'. It is as disguising as paying homage to Hitler. These war criminals should be tracked down and executed.

Instead, they bragged about how they raped young girls as described by these soldiers without remorse in the documentary Nanjing, which you can rent from Netflix. Another teenager 'wanted' to be raped to save her grandpa.

I suggest that one of the atomic bombs should have been dropped on the Imperial Palace in Kyoto and the other one on the 'shrine' instead of killing innocent citizens at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even this punishment would be too small for such crimes. The Tsunami must be formed by the tears of the victims crying for justice into a killer wave. I feel sorry for the current generation who has to suffer and who has nothing to do with WW2.

Japan today still has very strong navy in disguise. Do not be fooled by them again, or we have not learned our lessons.

The ignorant Japanese mayor said Nanjing Massacre never happened. Japanese, young and old, please use Wikipedia and search for 'Nanjing Massacre' or read the late Iris Chang's book which the documentary firm was based on.

We should not spread hatred especially from one generation to another. However, if we do not learn from history, most likely we will repeat history. I wrote this blog hoping to give a voice to the millions of victims who never have a voice.

Dear Economist: as much as I may be inclined to agree with most of your analysis, I find your tone of condescension towards non-Anglophone countries absolutely unbearable. The title of this article was "Anniversary of the Nanjing massacre", yet after only one paragraph on the event itself, you delve into an emotionally-charged attack of China. Seriously, I thought you had a good point with the manipulation of anti-Japanese sentiment in China as a political tool, but do you honestly not believe that your tone and choice of emphasis dilutes the message?

I am only writing this because I love and respect The Economist, and would hate to see it degenerate into cheap tabloid journalism capturing readers' attention through the use of heavy headlines, only to present an article on something completely unrelated.

Really good point. I don't think most readers caught that though. Most commentators seem to be more interested in supporting their believed version of history than in the quality/objectivity of the article.

Can Isreal's any wrong move make Hitler right? If history changed its own face, and German became your major ally against the jew, just like Japan is your major ally against chinese now, I am afraid you would not be shy to make any memory of Auschwitz shy.